The idea behind voluntary carbon offsets seems simple enough: Project developers undertake some kind of activity to either prevent carbon emissions or remove them from the atmosphere, like building a solar farm or planting trees. The project generates carbon credits, approved by a handful of unregulated carbon crediting programs and purchased by companies, governments, or...Read More

Carbon offsets have a reputation problem. The basic concept – that a reduction in carbon emissions or increase in carbon storage can compensate for emissions that occur elsewhere – sounds plausible, but successive scandals have plagued the market for years. Schemes have been accused of providing money to projects that: would have gone ahead anyway,...Read More